


The Difference Between Villain and Hero

by theblindgodess



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Also this might be part of a series, Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gross over use of 50s slang, Growing attached against your will, Hurt, I am a coward with a knife fight me, Implied/Referenced Character Death, It's not that dark I swear, More tags to be added, Totally beta read, Trauma, and there'll be some fluff!, whatchya gonna do?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29190513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theblindgodess/pseuds/theblindgodess
Summary: The main difference between a villain and a hero is their support groups, or lack thereof.~~~~~~~~~~~~Shadow had been the Hero of Mobius for years now, practically half of his life, along the way making many friends. His life has become the same pattern of wake up, beat Eggman, eat food, spend time with friends, go to sleep.But something was coming, something that would change Shadow's life forever, and make him wonder, what would his life had been like if he didn't have his friends?(A role swap au story)
Relationships: Amy Rose & Shadow the Hedgehog, Maria Robotnik & Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat & Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	The Difference Between Villain and Hero

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my docs FOR EVER waiting to be finished, it's still not finished, but I seem to have picked up some steam, so we'll see where this goes. A role swap au, with a twist! Can you find the twist? I didn't really hide it!

Shadow was young when he started fighting Eggman. If he had to guess he'd say about 6 years old. He knew logically that he should let the adults handle the bad guy, but he saw no adults doing so, and he knew he could, so he did. That is how a probably six-year-old orphaned hedgehog became the sworn enemy of a 40-50 something-year-old madman. 

He does know exactly how old he was when he made his first friend; because it was on his birthday. It was his 8th birthday and he was smashing up another one of Eggman's bases, not exactly what one would want on their birthday, but Shadow didn't really care, at this point to him his birthday was just another day that Eggman would try to take over the world, but that would soon change. As he was destroying the place he ran into a human girl of about 13 years. She was blonde and on the rounder side, with comically large glasses, and packed bags. When he asked her what she was doing there she said her name was Maria and that Eggman was her uncle and the only family she had left, but that she hated his guts and that when she had heard that the base was being attacked she thought it would be as good a time as any to leave, and she asked Shadow if she could go with him. Shadow thought, why not, she can come with me till we find a town where she can stay. He would soon come to call that genius girl his sister, and Eggman would soon call her a traitor, not that she cared.

Over the years Shadow would gain even more friends, despite the demanding lifestyle of the world’s hero. Amy Rose was a firecracker with a strong temper and a stronger arm, and Shadow considered her to be a second sister. Knuckles and he got off to a rough start but soon grew on each other like a fungus, and would constantly see which one was stronger. The Chaotix were an odd bunch, Shadow decided, but they were great company and an even better gossip group. And so many more would find their ways into Shadow’s life.

But after a while Shadow's life, despite being one constant unknown, grew to have a pattern, a rhythm. He would wake up, fight Eggman, spend time with his friends, eat sleep and repeat. And Shadow liked the pattern, it was a constant in the ever-changing world around him, it brought a feeling of security. Little did he know, though, that something, someone, was coming to throw off his pattern, and keep throwing it off just to mess with him. But to Shadow, the worst part, and the saddest, was that this change would lead him to think, would I have ended up like him if I didn't have my friends?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadow was miffed, to say the least. The twelve-year-old hedgehog was supposed to be on his way to Angel Island for Knuckles' probably-my-birthday-but-we-really-have-no-idea-when-it-is party, but here he was, locked up in the back of a plane and on his way to jail for a crime he didn't even commit! Probably, unless he got possessed again. 

Shadow could hear his friends’ voices in his head telling him what he should do. Amy was saying to just sit tight and wait it out. He had an alibi after all, once the authorities saw that they would let him go. Knuckles was saying something along those lines, but was then promptly called out for his hypocrisy because if he was in this situation, he wouldn't hesitate to destroy the plane and get the heck out of dodge. But Maria was yelling at him to get off his butt and get out of there, because this was obviously Eggman’s doing, framing Shadow for a crime to get him locked up and out of the way so that he couldn't interfere with Eggman's latest scheme. So it was Shadow's job to go and stop him, the only problem with that was that he was currently high up in the sky inside an aeroplane designed to keep people from using chaos control to escape. When they first found out about this plane Shadow thought it was specifically designed for him, but Maria said that the designs for it were drawn up decades before he was even born.

Shadow surveyed the area, the weak spots in the walls, the looseness of the handcuffs, the complete LACK of guards back with him, and came up with an escape plan. With a bit of contorting and a bruised wrist, he shed the handcuffs like a snake shedding its skin. He then took a running start and spin dashed the wall, and then he did it again. He had to make every shot count, knowing that the first spin dash would most certainly alert the G.U.N agents on the plane. Shadow burst the wall open just as the guards came in, and without a second glance, Shadow leapt into the night air.

The wind whipped past his face and through his clothes and quills, chilling him to the bone. Looking at the city below him, Shadow felt amusement come over him. Below him has a city full of people going about with their lives, and here he was, plummeting to his death from the lower stratosphere, and they were none the wiser. Focusing on this positive feeling, he channelled his chaos energy and activated chaos control, and he slowly but surely inches his way towards the ground fifty feet at a time. Without an emerald, he couldn't go more than fifty feet, and that was pushing it.

The thought process behind this inching was that whenever he teleported

he slowed down, and if he continuously did so, he could never get up to terminal velocity, and keep himself from going splat on the concrete below. He hoped he was right; it would be embarrassing if he weren’t, not like he would have the time to be embarrassed if he was wrong. But still, Knuckles would never let him live it down.

Shadow soon found the tops of buildings flying past him, and the uncharacteristically empty streets of Capital City rising to meet him. He flipped around in the air, aiming his feet first, and braced for impact between chaos jumps.

He exited a jump around 20 feet above the ground, and in a second he was on the ground, sliding to a stop. He stood up and stretched, working the pain of the rough landing out of his joints.

Shadow looked around at his surroundings, the downtown area eerily quiet and empty from the usual bustle of the Capital. Something was wrong, something was very wrong.

As Shadow walked through the streets guarded and ready for an attack, when he passed a television store. The tv’s in the window were still on despite the store being closed, and on the screens the news was flashing, telling the tale of how beloved hero, Shadow the Hedgehog, had turned to a life of crime. Shadow felt anger bubbling up inside of him. The screens then abruptly changed, an urgent message from the govt lighting up the window, warning that Shadow was loose in the Capitol, and that all citizens should head indoors for their own safety. _That explained the lack of people._

One of the screens wasn’t working, and Shadow used the black reflective surface to take a good look at himself. His quills were a mess, sticking up in all sorts of places after being blown about by the wind, some even fall out of his ponytail. He fixed it and shivered as a chill blew through the air, smacking against his bare arms and legs. He wished he had worn longer pants, but how was he to know that the government would kidnap him? He put his hood up as he left the window, better to have anyone who looks out of their window see some random weirdo and not the guy the government is on high alert for.

He continued his stroll through the abandoned streets, trying to think of a way to get in contact with his friends, G.U.N had taken any communication devices he had on him, and no one kept money on their person for a phone booth anymore, maybe he could find someone willing to give him some change.

As he pondered that possibility, he heard the sounds of someone fighting a robot, someone fighting a robot and winning with ease. He ran to the sound, thinking he could find something that could help him.

Shadow turned into a large intersection and stopped in his tracks. Before his eyes was a G.U.N Sentinal robot, a robot piloted by a person, falling to the ground, torn to bits and on fire. He could hear the soldier inside, calling for help and backup through her coms, chocking on the smoke. G.U.N was trying to arrest Shadow without any evidence, but he wasn’t about to let someone die. He rushed to the cockpit, but before he got there someone climbed on top of the part of the robot not on fire and addressed Shadow.

“Sorry nosebleed, but I ain’t letting you goof this up. You’re going to stay right there.” The new guy was a hedgehog with dark blue fur, red stripping his quills, and vibrant green eyes. He was wearing a vintage-looking leather jacket and jeans tucked into red and white boots. His quills were pulled into a ponytail, but it looked like a one armed toddler had done it, or that someone who had never put quills in a ponytail before had done it. Like it was the first time the hedgehog had done a ponytail.

_It’s as if_ , Shadow realized, _he’s trying to look like me._

“You’ve been impersonating me, getting me in trouble with the government!”

“Bingo!” The other hedgehog had pulled out a chaos emerald, the one he had stolen while pretending to be Shadow, and started to throw it around.

“You’ve been hurting people and destroying buildings parading around as me, you faker!”

“Hey there, don’t get frosted, ” the blue hog shifted his position, “besides if anyone here is bogus it’s you. And shouldn’t you be in the cooler? Or are the police in this town a bunch of goofs?”

“What?” This new hedgehog confused Shadow, how he held himself and how he talked, it made little sense to the almost-teen.

“Let me spell it out for you Clyde, ” in the next second the stranger was standing next to Shadow, a hand resting on his shoulder. “You gotta cut out to the jail so that I can burn some rubber and get this gig going.” In the next instant he was on top of a building behind the burning robot.

“What does that even mean?! No, more importantly, what do you want?! What are you planing?! How can you move that fast?! Who are you!”

“What, are you writing a book? I ain’t rapping to you, but I will tell you this.” A twisted smile grew to fill his face, and Shadow could almost swear that his eyes shifted to a deep, evil red.

“My name, is Sonic the Hedgehog, and I am the Ultimate Lifeform. You won’t be seeing me for a while, or ever really. Now I gotta beat feet, the heats coming, and I’d rather not be lighting up the tilt sign. Later, also later, gator! Chaos Control!” With the flash of a toothy grin and blinding light, Sonic was gone.

Shadow stood still for a second, trying to process what had just happened, when the sounds of sirens filled the air.

“Dang it!” Shadow proclaimed, “He was distracting me till the agent’s back up came! The agent!” All too late Shadow remembered the person trapped in the burning wreck, and he rushed to get them out. He broke the windshield, making the opening as big as he could, and moved as much rubble away as he could, and then reached in to pull the human out. She was in bad shape, the fire having licked at her flesh and clothes, bruises and blood littering her body from the battle she had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in, but she was still alive, and clinging to consciousness by the slimmest of threads. 

“Don’t worry ma’am, ” Shadow comforted her, “I’ll get you out, you aren’t going to die here today.” But before he could get her too far out of the wreck, police cars, G.U.N mechs, and helicopters all swarmed the area, weapons pointing at him, and paramedics rushing to free their trapped comrade.

“Shadow the Hedgehog! Step away from the soldier with your hands in the air! You are under arrest for theft, terrorizing the public, resisting arrest, and now attacking a government official! You have the right to remain silent!”

Shadow was trapped, with nowhere to run. He could get away this time, so he did as he was told.

As some agents started to restrain him, he watched as the paramedics took care of the soldier he had almost been to slow to save.

“He, he…” the lady muttered out as she was placed onto a stretcher.

“Don’t worry miss, ” the shrew assisting her responded, “he’s not going to hurt you anymore, and we’ll get you fixed up good as new.”

“No, you don’t, it wasn’t...” she fell into unconsciousness before she could finish her thought, and soon was lifted into one of the helicopters to be rushed to a G.U.N hospital.

Shadow let out a relieved sigh, now someone could make up for his mistake.

Soon he was properly tied up and loaded into a helicopter himself, but he was not taken to any hospital, he was headed straight for the most secure building G.U.N owned, a base for holding the worst prisoners and the rarest of weapons and treasures, Prison Island.

If G.U.N had its way, Shadow would never leave it for the rest of his life.

* * *

Maria’s day had been horrendous. Reason number one probably being that she hadn’t slept in 31 hours. She and her friends had spent most of the past afternoon and night trying to find where Shadow had gotten to this time, only to find out through the news that he had been arrested, for crimes against the state! This was the last thing the 17-year-old needed right now. She had classes to get through, but noooo! Fate couldn’t just let her have a break for once, deciding that instead of letting her get her chaos physics PhD that her time would be better spent breaking her brother out of jail so that he can go beat up her disowned uncle.

And that’s how she found herself heading towards Prison Island, flying inside of her trusty and homemade plane/mech, the Eggbuster. She thought the name was amusing, Eggman thought it was trying too hard.

The day was sunny and clear, perfect for flying, not so much for a stealth mission, but her plane couldn’t be seen on radar, and with a few remote hacks, the cameras on the base couldn’t see it either for the next few hours. She would only be spotted if someone was looking, and G.U.N weren’t the type of people to have a physical lookout when they could rely on their tech.

Maria was almost at the island, getting ready to find a spot in the forest to land, when something caught her eye. Looking down at the empty carrier in the dock below, she found Eggman attacking Amy. Maria had no clue what Eggman was doing there, or how Amy had gotten to the island, but that didn’t matter, Amy needed saving.

“This day just keeps on giving, doesn’t it?” Maria landed the Eggbuster behind the doctor as it began to shift into its mech form.

“What the! You too! What is this, some sort of ice cream social?! Who else got invited, the idiot echidna?” Eggman exclaimed as he turned round in his own mech to face Maria.

“What kind of ice cream socials do you get invited to?”

“That is none of your business!” the doctor snapped, and then he gave Maria a once over.

“It’s been a while, ” he started, “you look different.”

“It’s only been four months, or are you losing track of time in your old age?”

“Haha, you’re hilarious. You still look different, added on a couple of pounds here and there.”

“And your one to talk about someone’s weight, Dr Eggman.”

“It’s Robotnik you insolent girl! You of all people should know this! It’s your last name too!”

“Maybe, maybe not, the government doesn’t know.” Maria disengaged the safety on her mech’s weapon systems.

“Only because you hacked into their systems to change it.” Eggman shot back grumpily.

“What are you even doing here, I thought jail is the last place you would want to be?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes I would, that’s why I asked.” Smugness dripped from her voice.

“Well tough! You arent going to get squat from me!”

“Is that so?” Amy chimed in from behind Eggman, and when he turned his head to look at her, he found that she had pulled her hammer out. He was trapped on both sides by two scary, angry, and armed women.

“Grr, I don’t have time for this!” he growled out, and then used new springs in his mech to jump over Maria, and heading off into the island.

The two girls watched him go, and then turned to each other.

“What are you doing here?” Maria inquired of the pink hedgehog before her.

“Saving Shadow, what else would I be here for?” The 12-year-old answered matter-o-factly.

“Ok, how did you get here? I don’t see any boats that you could have driven here, and you don’t know how to fly a plane.”

“Espionage.” Amy said. She didn’t elaborate.

“You gonna explain?”

“No.”

“Good enough for me. Let’s go rescue Shadow.”

“I think we should split up, ” Amy suggested as they began to walk towards the G.U.N base. “It would be faster that way.”

“I agree, you take the north side, I’ll take the south. We’ll meet back at the docks in an hour, with or without him.”

“Oh, and keep your eye out, ” Amy added, “for a blue hedgehog in the most ridiculous outfit in the history of fashion and a bat wearing too much makeup, they arrived with Eggman.”

As they went their separate ways Maria had just one thought on her mind, _Shadow, what trouble have you gotten us into this time?_

* * *

Shadow was lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling of his cell. He had already walked the perimeter of his new confinement 1857 times and looked for any weak points, but there was nothing. The only interesting thing was the faded writing on the wall. For a max security facility, it sure has gone a while without a good cleaning.

The aforementioned writing on the wall was mainly complex equations, but something was off about them. They seemed like they had lost control, appearing almost crazed, and the few sentences here and there didn't help with that much. They went on about arks and lizards and some sort of science project, but the name had never been written.

Shadow turned his head to gaze as some of the crazier babbling. _Well, that bodes well for my future._ Shadow’s sarcastic thoughts circled in his head. _I’ll go crazy, just like the last loser in this cell, at least they’ll give me some markers when that happens, so I too can make crazed wall art. Maybe if I pretend to be crazy they’ll give me the markers now, that would kill the boredom. That’s just sad, pretending to be crazy, and just for what? Markers to draw rude and crude pictures with? It would be funny though, imagine the look on the guards’ faces when they see the walls covered with badly drawn genitalia. And one big middle finger staring right back out at them._

“Shadow!” a voice broke through Shadows thoughts from outside his cell.

_Looks like I have my chance to get some markers._

“Begone! Oh, vile one!” he called out to the person outside the door, “Your spiny master has mine answer, and it is no! Leave me!”

“Shadow, it’s me! Quit being a drama queen and get up! I’m busting you out.”

Shadow finally looked at his guest after that, and found Amy Rose standing in the hallway.

“Amy?” He inquired, “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your sorry butt!” Amy swiped a keycard through the lock, the light flashing green, and the cell door opened. “Come on! We don’t got all day!”

“How did you get a keycard to my cell?” Shadow made hid way to the door, eyeing the piece of plastic in his friend’s hand.

“Espionage.” Was her reply.

“You gonna give me more details?”

“No, now let’s go! Before G.U.N founds out, or we run into that blue hedgehog and Eggman again.”

“Wait!” Shadow grabbed Amy’s arm and looked her in the face, stopping their escape. “What blue hedgehog? Did he have red stripes? And Eggman is here?”

“Yes, that’s what the guy looked like. And he’s working for Eggman it looks like. Why, have you met him before?”

“That faker! What’s he doing here?!” Shadow cursed instead of answering Amy’s questions and turned to walk away from her.

“What?! Shadow! What are you doing?” Amy hissed after him.

“To find that faker! I have some unfinished business with him. I’ll find you after I’m done, wait for me at the docks.” And Shadow sped off leaving an annoyed Amy behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my pretties!! I hope you enjoyed, please leave a kudos and a comment, if you see a spelling or grammar mistake, please tell me, I want the story to be as enjoyable as possible for the readers. And tell me how you think some future parts are gonna go, what are your theories for the plot of this tale, and also tell me what you think could have been executed better in the plot, what would you change if you were at the rains, having others ideas and opinions to bounce mine off of helps my creative process. Or you can just scream at me if you like.  
> ya friend, BG, out.


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